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PCI
Interface
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The PCI200 interface board provides a fast
bi-directional data link between PCI-based computers and a RAM-SAN
500/520. It achieves
this by incorporating dual optical links that allow it to transfer data as fast as 200
MB/sec at distances up to 100 meters. The TexLink (TXL200/201) is the companion
interface that resides in one of the RAM-SAN I/O port slots. Since the
RAM-SAN
is multi-ported, many computers, workstations, or servers can have their own 200 MB/sec
link to the RAM-SAN. The PCI200 connects to the host machine through a standard
32/64 bit PCI bus. A program running on a host machine accesses the
RAM-SAN via TMS
library calls. The library calls utilize the PCI interface driver and allows the system to
buffer DMAs to and from the RAM-SAN. Additionally, a file system may be mounted to the
RAM-SAN to provide transparent access to the RAM-SAN system as a Solid State Disk.
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The
PCI Solution
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The PCI Local Bus was originally developed
to alleviate data bottlenecks between host processors and their I/O peripherals. It
accomplished this by moving peripheral functions with high bandwidth requirements not only
closer to the system's processor bus, but also giving them a processor-independent data
path. This allows PCI master devices to perform full-bandwidth DMA transfers to
system memory or to other devices while the host CPU is engaged in other tasks.
PCI
is a robust interconnect mechanism designed specifically to accommodate multiple high
performance peripherals for graphics, full motion video, SCSI, LAN, etc., and has become
the most widely accepted and implemented expansion standard in the world. The PCI200
is a full PCI master/target design that supports both 32-bit data paths at 33 MHz (132
MB/sec peak) and 64-bit data paths at 33 MHz (264 MB/sec peak).
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Supported
Platforms
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The PCI200 requires a PCI slot that supplies
both 5V and a 3.3 Volt power rails. In addition, drivers are currently available
for the PCI200 for DEC Alpha based systems under OpenVMS, Intel x86 systems running
Linux, and Solaris Sun systems running Solaris 2.5 or higher.
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